Breaking Point
by I love music
Summary: COMPLETE STORY KaneKirstyDani. First two chapters incorrectly uploaded. Click 2 for chap 1 & click 1 for chap 2. Rest OK.
1. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

Rose Phillips heard the door slam downstairs. She didn't know why she had feigned sleep tonight. Maybe because she felt her nephew needed to get out of the house for a while. Maybe because for a moment Kane had looked too much like his father. All she knew was for the first time in her life she had been afraid of him. It had only lasted a fleeting second, that look in his eyes, but it had been enough to bring back so many unpleasant memories. She realised she was shivering.

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Hesitantly, Kirsty pushed open the door.

"Dani...?" she whispered uncertainly.

"I'm okay!" Dani spoke irritably. "Kirsty, I told you, I told everyone! I need to be by myself."

"But I can't stand seeing you like this." Kirsty knew her voice was trembling. She sat on the edge of the bed, wishing she could do or say something to make Dani's pain go away. She was hurting herself, not just for Dani but for Kane too. Kane had so much emotional baggage from his dysfunctional family, yet take the time and patience to dig deeper and you found someone totally different. And yet what he'd done... how could she look at Dani now, see her in pieces, call herself her sister, yet love the person who had made her like this?

"Shove over. I'm staying with you," Kirsty said determinedly, lying on top of the bed and laying her head down on the pillow next to her. Dani gave a weak smile. Even when she was a kid, Kirsty had always known exactly what she wanted and got it. And it did feel better, knowing she was there.

"It'll be okay," Kirsty whispered, and Dani felt that one day it might, just might, be.

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"Rhys, it's no use shouting and swearing. We're stuck here till morning so we'll just have to make the best of it."

Rhys Sutherland slammed down the car bonnet. He'd tried everything he knew to start the engine and nothing would work. They were stranded in the middle of nowhere, on one of the many lonely, silent paths that streaked the vast expanse of Australia. "The worst thing is, Shell, we can't even get in touch with the kids."

His wife bit her lip. Too late now to admit their daughters were right and that mobiles were essential items. Too late for so many things. "Kane won't go anywhere near," she said. "He can't know we're away and anyway it's been two weeks. He's kept his promise so far."

"Yeh, well, who knows what goes on inside that mongrel's head?" Rhys was tearing himself apart. If he had his way, he'd never have left Dani's side since Kane. But it had been Dani herself who didn't want that. Even when the flashbacks came she shunned everyone. Once he he had gone to hug her and she had flinched. His daughter's life was destroyed and he couldn't even hold her.

Shelley rested her hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to the present. "That rain's getting heavier, Rhys. We need to get some rest. No-one's going to come along this Godforsaken road till daylight at least."

Rhys nodded, angry and helpless. There was a rumble of thunder from somewhere many miles away. They could only get the blanket out of the back and settle down for a long, uncomfortable night.

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Jade Sutherland and Bethany Mitchell leaned out of the window. The rain was sweeping in but neither of them cared. The day had buzzed. They'd been to the fair, gorged themselves on french fries and big macs, tried each other's clothes and make-up, discussed boys non-stop, especially their current boyfriends. The last thing they wanted to do was sleep.

"Wow, cool!" Beth said, as a particularly loud crash of thunder heralded a wild flash of lightning. She looked at Jade. Her friend had been strangely quiet these last few minutes. "Hey, you okay?"

Jade shrugged. "Remember me telling you Kirsty and me used to have like...a bond?"

"Has something happened?"

"I don't know. It's not as strong as it used to be. I just feel something's not right. Probably my imagination."

"Give her a ring in the morning. It'll be fine."

"Yeh." Jade turned back to the window. "You know, my sister Dani hates thunder and lightning. I hope she's okay."

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It was a childish thing to be arguing over, Kirsty knew, but she and Dani stood by the bedroom door arguing just the same. The storm had unnerved them. One minute they were giggling together, reminiscing about stupid stuff from when they were kids, the next the thunderstorm broke and everything changed. Fear was back in Dani's eyes. She had always been scared of thunder and being in the shipwreck had made her worse. Kirsty was frustrated. She'd been so close to getting Dani to open up to her and now the moment was gone.

"No, Dan, I'LL go down for you for a cold drink..."

"Kirsty, I Will Be Okay." Dani added a capital letter to every word, like Kirsty was an idiot.

"I'm trying to help here!"

"Well, you're not!" Dani's voice was as loud as her sister's. She jumped at another crash of thunder and swallowed. Her tone was quieter now. "I know...I know I feel safer when it's like this if I'm hiding under the duvet but I'm going to make myself overcome all my fears if it kills me. That scumbag Kane and everything."

Kirsty looked away. Like Dani, she thought of Kane constantly but for very different reasons. She loved him. She wished she could have fallen for someone different, someone who had never hurt Dani, maybe Seb or the guy on holiday last year whom she'd had a brief fling with, but she couldn't help herself.

"Oh, Kirst, I'm sorry! I know you're making this huge sacrifice for me and..."

"So is Kane! It's not easy for him either!" Kirsty regretted snapping immediately. In the lightning, Dani looked so small and vulnerable, hurt and bewildered, shocked by Kirsty's outburst. She felt ten times more guilty when Dani said what she said.

"I realise that. I _am_ grateful to you guys. I know Kane is sorry and I hate myself for not being strong enough to make all this pain go away ..."

"Dani, it's not your fault!" Tears sprang to Kirsty's eyes as she gave her sister a fierce hug.

"Hey, I need air!" Dani said shakily, trying to make a joke of it. "I guess this means it's okay for me to go down on my own then?"

"What do you think?" Reluctantly, Kirsty let go. Dani was right. Facing up to your fears was the only way to be rid of them. Apart from when she'd been with Kane, Kirsty had never run away from anything in her life. But it was so hard her knowing her sister was scared and having to let her go it alone. Mum, Dad, Jade, herself, they'd lived and breathed Dani's life falling apart and they all just wanted to protect her.

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Dani's hands shook uncontrollably. The thunder seemed to shudder through her whole body and she wanted to turn and run back to Kirsty like she'd run to Mum when she was little. But she kept herself focused. She had survived a rape. Survived a shipwreck. She could surely get through something as harmless as thunder.

Her mouth was dry. She had to head for the kitchen where...why, why, why must her mind keep playing over that day? Why was she torturing herself? Her heart was beating so fast she thought she would die. She could do this. She had to. She pushed open the kitchen door and was puzzled to feel a strange breeze on her face. Lightning lit up the kitchen for a few seconds. Enough to take in the scene of devastation - and the figure climbing out of the window. Dani's terror was too great for her to scream. She froze.


	2. Chapter 1

**chapter 1**

Dani Sutherland woke screaming from another nightmare. She stared warily round the darkened room, breathless, beads of sweat on her forehead, clenching and unclenching her fists the way her counsellor had taught her. Clara Denton was a nice lady, she reflected, as she inhaled deeply. Flynn had recommended her.

"It must be a woman, Flynn," Dani had said, wishing she could stop the nervous trembling. "And there are...things I can't talk to Mum about."

Dr Denton was a plump, middle-aged woman with two grown-up children and a new baby granddaughter. At first Dani thought she was too nice to be of any help, but she was soon proved wrong. The teenager found herself pouring out the whole story on her initial consultation, from the spark she'd felt on meeting Kane at the Drop-in Centre, long before it had all happened, to now he'd returned to the Bay to look after his aunt. At least, she thought she'd told the whole story.

They were sitting opposite each other without any desk to set barriers and Clara took both Dani's hands in hers.

"And now there are so many emotions, dear, constantly churning around inside you, that you can't deal with or explain?" she said gently. "You love Kirsty so much and want her to be happy yet you feel betrayed...Kane did a terrible thing yet he saved your Mum's life... always anger, confusion, guilt, hate, fear..."

Dani nodded through her veil of tears, sobbing.

She was crying again now and trying so hard to calm herself and do as Clara said when Kane's image wouldn't leave her mind - picture him as he was the last time she'd seen him, pushing his aunt in the wheelchair, guiltily stammering out an apology. But it was no use. All she could see was how Kane looked that terrible, terrible day.

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Kirsty listened anxiously from the bedroom next door. The scream hadn't woken her, she'd already been awake, worrying about Dani. She longed to comfort her but her older sister was adamant she wanted to deal with the nightmares by herself, finding her own inner strength. Kirsty felt so alone, so responsible for Dani tonight. She looked across at her twin's empty bed. Jade was spending the weekend with a friend from school. Mum and Dad had gone to a day-time high school reunion in their childhood city and though they'd said they'd be back by ten they were now over an hour late. Since Kane's return they were never, ever late back from anywhere. That was worrying too, though it was her parents, not Kane, she was worried about. She had told them, over and over, he wasn't going to hurt anyone, but they'd still had strong words with her about how she was to have no contact with him and had even been down to Yabbie Creek to warn Kane off. They needn't have worried. The young couple had already decided themselves to do the right thing by everyone.

Flynn had passed her Kane's letter. He had one too, from Kane to Mr and Mrs Sutherland, though they didn't know it yet. Kirsty's envelope was unsealed.  
"No more secrets," Flynn had said. "Kane asked me to read the letter first, Kirsty, so I know no-one's snuck round behind anyone's back. I'm sorry, but it's the way it has to be."

Kirsty had nodded, her heart thudding, and taken the letter down by the rockpool to read. Kane's Auntie Rose had been in a bad car accident. She dreaded spending months in hospital and had asked him if he could return to look after her till she was well enough to cope on her own. He felt he owed her. Of course he ached to see Kirsty again, but he didn't want to do any more damage and split up the Sutherland family and Kirsty. She needed her family. He knew they hated him, but they were good people and would always look out for her. Kirsty wept as she'd never wept before that day alone by the rockpool. She had written back, leaving the letter open for Flynn as Kane had done. She loved Kane, she always would, but she didn't want to hurt Dani any more either. She agreed they could never meet.

But the hospital was in Summer Bay and once Kane and Kirsty _had _met, while she was walking with Dani. They'd done no more than exchange glances. Kane had said sorry to Dani for bumping into her, but only nodded to Kirsty before turning the wheelchair. She knew from his eyes that his heart was breaking as much as her own.

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Kane Phillips sat on the porch in the back garden, taking in the cool night air, gazing up at the stars, thinking of Kirsty and wishing so much he could be with her. But this unbearable aching round his heart was the price he would always pay for what he did to Dani. To never again hold the girl he loved in his arms, never share another kiss or just stroll wordlessly along the beach, together even in their silence. His life had never been easy. It seemed it never would be. If Rhys Sutherland thought being a full-time carer was fun he was a total jerk. How the hell he'd kept his cool the day Rhys had come to the house shooting his mouth off he'd never know. He'd done everything by the book, writing to let them know why he was coming back, explaining he'd keep well out of the way of the family, he was here only until his aunt was better. But Rhys had been like a madman, even Shelley, waiting in the car, had squirmed. And then Shelley too, just before they'd left, had stared at him with undisguised hatred and disgust. Somehow that had wound him up even more than Rhys's belligerence. It was then the slow rage must have begun burning inside him, growing each time someone who knew his past made a remark or gave him a contemptuous look. He knew he deserved some kind of payback but...

"Kane! Kane, I need my medication! Where are you? Kane!"

His aunt had been in a lot of pain today and was cranky.

"Yeh, yeh, I'm just outside." He smashed his fist against the wall as he turned indoors. Five minutes time out, that was all he'd wanted, and he couldn't even get that.

"Are you...are you all right?" she asked.

He drew in a breath. She looked scared, like the times he remembered if his Dad had been drinking when she'd come to take him out when he was little.

"Yeh, sure. Just a headache. I'll get you your pills."

He got her to bed and asleep, but though he was exhausted himself, he couldn't rest. He was like a coiled spring. He needed a break but who the hell could he even talk to when everyone in Summer Bay despised him? Maybe Flynn? This anger was scaring him now because he hadn't felt like this since... well, he didn't want to think about his life before Kirsty. He checked on Auntie Rose, making sure her specially adapted phone was close enough for her to simply punch in the single digit that would immediately connect her to his mobile, then made his way to the Drop-in Centre. Lights were blazing and judging by all the yelling and noise there was a particularly nasty fight going on. He could see Flynn's silhouette through the frosted window. He was remonstrating with someone but the other person was having none of it. Kane knew he had no chance of seeing him tonight. His head was thudding fit to burst. He had to find some way to release this pent-up anger, he thought, looking down towards the caravan park.


	3. Chapter 2

I'm numbering the chapters here as well - cos I get very mixed up when I load them and I'm worried they'll end up out of sequence - so if that does happen go by the chapter number on the actual page.  
  
ps Whether your opinion of this story is good, bad or indifferent please review even if it's only to say 'hi' cos it's nice to know someone's reading!  
  
  
  
CHAPTER 3  
  
"Dani?"  
  
Kirsty went quietly down the top two steps then hesitated. Dani had gone so far back inside herself these last few months. After the two Kane mediation sessions she'd seemed to be getting her life back on track. Even finding out about Kane and Kirsty, that had been tough, but she'd coped, forgiven Kirsty, tried to understand. And then suddenly, much, much later, came a whole rollercoaster of emotions. Clara Denton, Dani's counsellor, explained it was a delayed reaction to the rape because Dani had never fully dealt with what happened. She said the family needed to re-build her self-esteem, encourage her to develop her own confidence. Kirsty knew she should maybe wait until Dani said she needed her help. But it was too quiet and she was too anxious. With sudden resolve, she ran down the remaining stairs, two at a time.  
  
*****  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Kane jumped. "Oh, it's you. Hi."  
  
"You're out late," Flynn said.  
  
"Yeh."  
  
"How are things?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
"How's your aunt?"  
  
"Yeh, okay." It was ridiculous. This was the guy Kane had wanted to talk to a couple of hours ago and now he couldn't think what to say. His head was all over the place these days. The storm had receded but the rain was still heavy and he was soaking. All he could think of was getting back, getting dry. "How did the fight go?"  
  
"The fight?"  
  
"There was a blue at the Drop-in Centre earlier."  
  
"Oh, that. Something and nothing. All sorted."  
  
"Yeh...well. See ya."  
  
Flynn stared after him. He was on the main road from Yabbie Creek to Summer Bay because he was walking back to his car having just visited a distressed patient who'd phoned him. Why Kane Phillips had been by the Drop-in Centre and therefore in Summer Bay remained a mystery.  
  
******  
  
Shelley woke from a fitful sleep and pushed Rhys' head from her aching shoulder. At first she couldn't think where she was, then gradual memory filtered back. The high school reunion had been a wonderful, relaxing experience, exactly what they'd needed after all the stress of the previous couple of years. It had been good to catch up with friends they hadn't seen in over twenty years, to forget all their troubles, even if it was only for a little while. Then the car had broken down on the way home, spoiling everything. A dingo howled somewhere. Shelley rubbed her neck and glanced at her watch. One o'clock. With any luck, the girls were fast asleep and not worrying.  
  
*****  
  
"Kane?"  
  
"Yeh?" He looked in on his aunt, still busy drying his hair with a towel.  
  
"You all right? Only I heard you gong out." She was still strangely wary.  
  
"Yeh, sure. I just needed to clear my head for a while. Listen, I'm whacked. You need a drink or anything before I hit the sack?"  
  
She relaxed. Wherever he'd been, whatever he'd been doing, it had helped. He was back to being himself. "I'll be right. You look after me well. Thanks."  
  
"No worries."  
  
"I know it's not easy for you. Sometimes people think because I'm in a wheelchair I can't see or hear."  
  
He shrugged. "I'm used to it. It was the same with my Dad. Well, not exactly the same. Nobody dared give Richie Phillips lip, they pretty much got out of his way." He smiled at the memory. "Used to feel real important when I was a kid and Dad took me out!"  
  
Kane was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. Alone in her room, Rose stayed awake for a long, long time thinking about Richie Phillips. Remembering her terror of Kane's father.  
  
*****  
  
Jade padded across to the window again. It was too clammy to sleep and Bethany's snoring was getting on her nerves. She rested her head on the cool glass and fought back an urge to cry. Something was terribly, terribly wrong with Kirsty.  
  
*****  
  
Kirsty had a cramp in her leg, but she didn't dare move. Not while Dani was like this. She had tried getting to the phone but Dani had clung on to her arm so tight. And it was a waste of time shouting, the nearest caravan wasn't exactly on their doorstep. She looked round yet again in shocked disbelief. Food and drink smeared everywhere, plates smashed, packets opened and their contents scattered. She couldn't understand why they hadn't heard anything, but the storm had been directly overhead, and she'd decided to put the radio on full blast to drown out the thunder for her sister. The Sutherlands had never thought twice about leaving downstairs windows open on particularly hot nights because you could trust everyone in Summer Bay...except now you couldn't. Knowing what Dani had gone through, you had to be sick to do something like this, really sick. It wasn't the burglary itself, broken objects could easily be fixed, broken minds ran much deeper...  
  
A family-size bottle of milk was turned upside-down on the dining table and Dani watched unseeingly as a river of milk dripped steadily, forming streams that snaked across the uneven floor. Whoever had broken in could get inside her head any time they chose and rip her apart. She felt like she had the day she was raped, not a person any more, angry, invaded, destroyed, empty and numb and dead.   
  
"Kirst..."  
  
Kirsty heaved a huge sigh of relief as she spun round. It was the first time Dani had spoken, though they'd been there ages.  
  
"He...Kirsty...I..."  
  
"Did he touch you?" Kirsty asked quickly, concerned.  
  
"No, but...but...I...saw him. I think...think it w-was Kane." 


	4. Chapter 4

(***IMPORTANT: If you are following this story go by the chapter number typed below as chapters may have been uploaded incorrectly)  
  
***CHAPTER 4***  
  
First light was breaking in a blaze of golden glory across Summer Bay when the trucker dropped off the Sutherlands. "Beaut place!" he said admiringly.   
  
Shelley smiled. The man smelled of the sweat that stained his T-shirt and all she could think of was a bath and sleep, but, headed for a delivery in Yabbie Creek, he'd been their unlikely saviour when they could have been stranded for days.  
  
"Mate, any time you and your family want, there's a free holiday at the caravan park," Rhys said gratefully, slapping his back.  
  
"Thanks, you guys rock!"  
  
Shelley and Rhys stifled laughter.   
  
"Obviously he's somehow met up with young Max," Rhys whispered, as they waved. It was an expression their nephew had over-used when he'd stayed a while back. Shelley pulled a warning face, but she couldn't help laughing too.  
  
They stopped laughing abruptly when they saw what had happened.   
  
*****  
  
White faced and frightened, Jade arrived home suddenly a few hours after her parents, dropped off by Bethany's bewildered father. She couldn't explain to Bethany or her family why she had to go home early any more than she could explain it to herself. She had run down the path and hammered frantically on the door, hadn't asked any questions although Dani's doctor Clara Denton was there preparing an injection. She had hugged Kirsty, kept telling everyone it would be all right, stayed close to Dani. All that mattered was the Sutherlands being together.  
  
*****  
  
Kane Phillips had one photo of Kirsty. While his aunt dozed in the chair, he studied the crumpled snapshot, thinking back.  
  
"Hey, babe!"  
  
"Hey yourself!" They had fallen easily into each other's arms, kissed for a long, long time.  
  
"You're beautiful," he said, when they finally had to come up to breathe. The sun was sparkling on the blue water and sunbeams danced in Kirsty's hair. She smiled that pleased little Kirsty smile that made his heart turn somersaults, locked her fingers in his as they strolled along the wharf.   
  
"I found something funny today. Promise you won't laugh."  
  
"You found something funny but I can't laugh?" he was grinning at her, teasing her.   
  
"You know what I mean."  
  
"Are you allowed to laugh?"  
  
"Nope," she said, joining in the game.  
  
"And what happens if one of us laughs?"  
  
"Umm...you have to kiss!"  
  
So he'd tickled her and she'd tickled him back, and they'd had a pretend fight, tickling and pushing and shoving, till she slipped and he'd had to steady her. For a moment they stopped, time standing still, gazing into each other's eyes, then it was Kirsty's turn to tease.  
  
"Look!" she said suddenly, waving the photo, then snatching it back, so he had to catch hold of her hand to wrist to see. "Dad took it a few months back when I didn't know. I'd just found Mum's old sun hat and was fooling with Jade, pretending I was a big movie star. Omigod, what do I look like?"  
  
"Beautiful, as usual," he said honestly, smiling at Kirsty's pose and the wide-brimmed straw hat.  
  
"Creep!" she gently slapped his arm. "Hey! Who said you keep that?"  
  
"Sorry, Kirst. You can't be trusted not to laugh," he said, putting the photo in his pocket.   
  
"Give it back!"  
  
"Make me!"  
  
Laughing, she tried to grab back the photo, but he was too quick, and they ran, dodging people on the wharf, people who tried to look annoyed but who couldn't help smiling. When she caught up with him, next to a boat called Lucky Star she said it must be a omen. But it wasn't. Two days later her parents found out she was seeing Kane.   
  
  
  
Kirsty was just a phone call away. Kane had thought about it so many times. The Sutherlands' number, the number advertised everywhere for the caravan park, was ingrained in his memory. Shaking, his heart racing, he lifted the cold receiver and dialled...  
  
Then he put the phone back down. He couldn't do this. He couldn't drive a wedge between the girl he loved and her family, and he'd promised, and there was Dani. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Stupid, stupid, stupid, to cry.   
  
*****  
  
"Mum, it wasn't Kane. I don't know what Dani saw, but it wasn't Kane. He wouldn't do something like this!" Kirsty's face was streaked with tears.  
  
Impatiently, her mother slammed down the receiver - the caller had hung up before she could speak anyway. Thank goodness Dani wasn't around. Then she heard the shower running yet again, Jade calling something, Dani's answer in a jerky, tearful voice.   
  
It had been like this ever since they had arrived home to find Kirsty rocking Dani in her arms, soothing and denying, like a mother chasing away her child's bad dreams. Dani had slept for hours after Clara Denton administered the injection, but since waking she'd showered over and over. Rhys was out at a meeting to discuss what Summer Bay was going to do about Kane Phillips and Shelley was glad they'd decided not to tell the girls about this, especially Kirsty.   
  
She looked now at the daughter who gave her most heartache. She was tired, far, far too tired, to argue. But her eyes were enough. Ice cold with loneliness and despair, Kirsty staggered to her room.   
  
*****  
  
Like a sleepwalker, Dani stepped out of the shower cubicle, looping the belt of her bathrobe. "I can't get clean, Jade. No matter how many times I wash, I can't get clean."   
  
"It's okay," Jade said, knowing it wasn't. Nothing made sense any more. Dani had been like this after the rape. But this wasn't a rape, it was their home being broken into, and yeh, that was scarey, but not scarey like rape, and, until this, Dani had been getting slowly bet...  
  
"I don't know what to do!" Sobbing, Dani sank down against the wall, covering her head with her arms.   
  
"Kirsty, Kirsty!" Jade had always shouted for her twin when something deeply disturbed her. Kirsty was strong. The strongest of all the Sutherland family.  
  
Kirsty ran to them.  
  
"She's hurting real bad, Jade," she said sadly, sitting down next to Dani and taking her hand. "The break-in...for Dani, it's sort of a lot more than that. All we can do is be here for her."   
  
Nodding, Jade sat down beside Dani too. "We'll all get through this together, Dan," she said. "Kane won't win."  
  
At the mention of his name an invisible hand gripped Kirsty's heart. Did Jade know of the icy loneliness inside her? Couldn't she herself love Dani enough to forget Kane...ever? Kirsty didn't belong anywhere any more.  
  
*****  
  
Rhys wondered how he'd come down to this. Not long ago anyone who knew him would have said he was a law-abiding family man. Now here he was, the loudest of the vengeful group gathered in Alf Stewart's diner. Dani had begged her parents not to contact the police over the break-in. In Dani's troubled mind, though the police had been sympathetic and supportive after the rape, they were still irretrievably linked to the questions, the medical examination, the unreality of it all. But something had to be done. Kane Phillips couldn't be allowed to escape justice yet again.  
  
Rhys Sutherland felt ready to kill. 


	5. Chapter 5

***CHAPTER 5***  
  
"Nobody's safe in their own home!" Colleen Smart declared.  
  
"We need to do something pronto," Alf Stewart said. "Why are we wasting time pussyfooting around?"  
  
Leah Patterson, busy providing soft drinks and coffees, looked uncomfortable. There had never been this much hatred in Summer Bay before.   
  
"We don't know for certain it WAS Kane," Flynn added "We don't actually have any proof."  
  
"How much more proof do you need?" Rhys yelled, his anger white hot. "Dani saw him. He told you he was by the Drop-in Centre. Bill Langley from Caravan 9 saw someone running away from the house and his desciption sounded very much like..."  
  
"Rhys, Rhys, it could have been anyone!" Flynn pointed out. "A disgruntled holidaymaker. An opportunist thief. The guy at the Drop-in Centre Saturday night was fighting the world, it could just as easy have been him."  
  
"Well, I still reckon it was Phillips." Will Smith was back visiting his family in Summer Bay. At the time of the attack he'd been Dani's boyfriend and he'd never forget or forgive what Kane Phillips had put her through.  
  
Irene Roberts, who'd brought Will up from a youngster, patted his hand. "I'm inclined to agree with Will. I know my Nathan ain't no angel but this is different. At best the Phillips boy is sick in the head."  
  
The debate went on a while longer before Flynn turned to Rhys. The meeting had already over-run by an hour. "In the end, I guess it's your call, mate."  
  
Rhys looked round. He'd been pleasantly surprised at the turn-out, including several friends from Yabbie Creek. One or two, like Jesse, had stayed away, but it showed there were still a lot of decent folk about. "We see him outside the hospital," he said.  
  
Flynn heaved a sigh of the relief. Storming the house, bashing Kane up, telling him to get out of Yabbie Creek, none of them were ever serious options, as some people seemed to think. Kane took his aunt to Summer Bay Hospital Wednesday afternoons. It meant they didn't have to involve Mrs Phillips and gave Kane a chance to tell his side of the story. If he was innocent, fine. And if he was guilty...  
  
  
  
It was all so ugly, so sick, Leah thought, re-playing in her head what her boyfriend Jesse had said last night. "I had some sympathy with Kane to start with. It's tough trying to make a go of things. But, hell, Leah, if he can break into the Sutherlands after what he did to Dani what else is he capable of?"  
  
Jesse was right. Dani was a friend and she'd been hurt. Badly. Leah stacked the empty cups and turned away.   
  
*****  
  
Dr Clara Denton rang the Phillips' doorbell, apprehensive about her reception. Dani Sutherland, who'd attended the clinic with her sister Kirsty on Monday, was causing her increasing concern. She'd been making slow, steady progress, but the break-in had plunged her on a downward spiral. Though she'd been supportive of her sister, Kirsty was pale and tense. Small wonder. Clara had been shaken to the core when at her first counselling session Dani had told her of Kirsty and Kane falling in love. She had last seen Kane when he was three years old, when she'd called on his father Richie Phillips to advise on a possible breach of probation. She had been struck then by the startling blueness of the toddler's eyes. His father's eyes were brown so Kane had obviously inherited the colour from his mother, but whereas Mrs Phillips' eyes were an unremarkable blue Kane's were sparkling. She remembered that the coldness Richie and his wife Diane displayed towards the two children, particularly Kane, had disturbed her and she'd noted it in her report. Soon afterwards she'd moved out to Perth, returning to Yabbie Creek only six months ago after the death of her husband, and Flynn Saunders had asked her to counsel Dani. Strange how the wheel had turned full circle, Clara thought, as the door was opened and she noticed again the blueness of Kane's eyes.   
  
*****  
  
Curled up on the sofa, knees drawn up to her chin, Dani stared blankly at the TV screen. She was dressed as she always was nowadays, in baggy top and unflattering trousers. Anything to divert attention from herself. Before the break-in Kirsty had sometimes done Dani's hair or the twins had gone shopping with her for new clothes. She was almost over Josh, met up with friends, even, very tentatively, begun looking round at other guys. It wasn't easy, the flashbacks still haunted her, which was why she'd consulted Flynn. But Clara, her new counsellor, understood and Dani was piecing her life back together. Then the break-in happened and the rape was back inside her head, in every fibre of her being. Dad was walking in and out, forgetting stuff he needed for some caravan maintenance work, joking to Dani. Kirsty was out somewhere. Mum and Jade were chatting with her about the Drop-in Centre, Nick, Jade's homework essay, a dozen other things, and Dani heard herself answering from somewhere far away. Everyone with a life and no-one knowing Dani was in prison.   
  
*****  
  
It was a shock to Clara to find she liked Kane. She hadn't expected to. With his father Richie Phillips she'd been constantly alert to the violence bubbling under the surface. But Kane was different, keen to re-start the mediation sessions if it would help, understanding she needed to ask him before suggesting it to Dani, worried about Kirsty.  
  
Clara turned to Rose when Kane had gone out of the room with their dishes. "The Sutherlands rang me very early on Sunday morning. Dani was very distressed because the house had been broken into."  
  
Rose bristled. "And of course they think it's Kane!"  
  
"I'm afraid so but I didn't see any point in upsetting Kane by telling him. The police aren't involved and a colleague of mine is trying to calm things down so hopefully it will blow over. I know you'll stand by him. If it's any consolation I don't think Kane's resposible either." Clara thought it wiser not to add that until meeting Kane today she'd thought he was.   
  
Rose shot Clara a sharp look. "He's my nephew and I'll always stand by him. He went through enough misery having Richie and Diane as parents and I can't say I'm sorry they're dead."  
  
"How much have you told Kane?" Clara asked curiously, as she picked up her paperwork and car keys.  
  
"Nothing. And I want it to stay that way."  
  
The doctor slung her bag over her shoulder. "It will. A confidence is a confidence, Rose, no matter how many years have gone by."  
  
Rose glanced at her but didn't answer. Dr Denton knew only half the story. Kane would never know. If he were ever to learn about the family secret buried deep in the past it would destroy him. 


	6. Chapter 6

***CHAPTER 6***  
  
Kirsty sat on the beach, turning Kane's ring round her fingers, staring up at the sky. Blue, like Kane's eyes. His favourite colour. Blue, like the dress she'd been wearing when Kane had found her after the shipwreck, when she'd got to know who he really was. She had got into the habit of coming down to the beach every day after school, just to be on her own and think of him. It was Wednesday and as usual she'd lost herself in schoolwork to escape. Everyone was delighted with how well she was doing and said she'd easily realise her dream of becoming a PE teacher...and no-one knew it was all for Kane, who'd believed in her when no-one else had.   
  
A shadow fell across her path and, annoyed, she folded her hand over the ring, shading her eyes to see who it was.  
  
"Oh. Hi, Seb."  
  
"Hey." Seb was disappointed at the flatness of her greeting. He slipped on some wet sand as he sat down, which, in spite of her mood, made Kirsty giggle.  
  
"What?" she asked, suddenly aware of the way he was looking at her.  
  
"You have the most amazing smile."  
  
"Don't do this, Seb! You know I don't feel that way about you." She jumped up, brushing the sand from herself as if brushing away his words, and the ring slipped from her grasp.   
  
"Because you're still seeing Kane?" Seb asked bitterly, staring down at the ring.  
  
Kirsty retrieved the token of their love. "No. I'm not. Not because we don't love each other - we'll always love each other - but because we don't want to hurt Dani."   
  
"Kirst, get real!" Seb couldn't help his anger. He loved Kirsty and she was totally wrapped up in a sicko. "He broke into the house, that's how much he cares for your sister."  
  
She glared. "That wasn't Kane."  
  
"Well, he'll have his chance to prove it wasn't then." Too late he realised he'd said too much. Will Smith had told his brother Nick the outcome of the meeting and Nick had told Seb, but Kirsty wasn't supposed to know.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Nothing."   
  
"Seb, tell me!"  
  
He shrugged. "Your Dad and some others are going to ask him a few questions when he takes his aunt to the hospital this savvo, that's all."  
  
Tears sprang suddenly to Kirsty's eyes. "I have to go."  
  
"Kirsty, he's not worth it!"  
  
She didn't turn back. She loved her family, she always would, but Kane was all alone and needed her and she couldn't stand the pain of being without him for even a moment longer.  
  
*****  
  
"Jeez, what is this!"  
  
"Mate, calm down," Flynn replied. "We're just trying to get your perspective on things here."  
  
"Yeh, sounds like it!" Kane hadn't thought anything of it when Flynn came into the hospital waiting room while Auntie Rose was attending her weekly check-up and asked if he could step outside for a quick chat. She'd be there a while and he was bored. It had been a shock to find Rhys, Alf Stewart and a bloke he didn't recognise there too.  
  
"If you're so flamin' innocent what were you doing in Summer Bay that night?" Alf demanded.  
  
"I already told you. I went for a run on the beach."   
  
"In the pouring rain? In the middle of a storm?" Rhys asked in disbelief.   
  
"Yeh. In the pouring rain. In the middle of a storm. So I don't know who trashed your house, but I had more interesting things to do." Kane's answer was coated in sarcasm. He was burning to lash out at someone but this man was Kirsty's father and he would never, ever hurt Kirsty. Besides, he understood where he was coming from, you were always over-protective of those you loved. He hadn't known that till Kirsty but then no-one had ever loved him till Kirsty.   
  
"You think we've got rocks in our heads? You're as guilty as hell!" Dave Fletcher, the man Kane didn't recognise, was probably the richest man in Yabbie Creek and his vast wealth could make or break people and businesses. He'd amassed his fortune in land and property - dealing with Summer Bay Caravan Park had been how he'd met Rhys. But land and property sales were not areas Kane moved in and he was unimpressed by the pompous little man.   
  
"Oh, yeh, and what would you know?"   
  
"I know enough." His face was only inches away now. "I know what you did to Dani Sutherland and I know you're a sick, perverted..."  
  
The blood spurted from his nose in a rich, dark red and Kane felt himself being pulled back and the satisfying pain in his knuckles.  
  
"Mate, this isn't getting us anywhere!"  
  
He angrily shrugged himself free of Flynn. "Forget it. You're no different to the rest."   
  
"This wasn't meant to happen..." Flynn began, but Fletcher, busy trying to stem the flow of blood, interrupted.  
  
"That's it! You're only tolerated here because of your aunt. Don't even think of trying to get a job or a home in Yabbie Creek or Summer Bay. In fact, don't think of settling anywhere. I've contacts all over Oz."  
  
"Yeh, yeh, like I care. Your poison's already in Yabbie Creek."  
  
"Mr Phillips?" the young nurse hesitated in the doorway, realising she'd walked in on an argument. "Your aunt asked me to look for you to tell you she's ready."  
  
Kane gave the four men a final look of contempt and banged the hospital door behind him.  
  
"Guys, this wasn't the deal," Flynn said. "The deal was, a warning."  
  
Alf shook his head. "A warning wouldn't have been enough."  
  
Dave was looking furiously down at the blood staining his expensive business suit. "I'm going to have to use the same hospital as that vicious b****** to get this injury seen to."  
  
He was talking to Rhys but Rhys wasn't listening. He'd never particularly liked Dave Fletcher, who seemed more interested in settling some old score with the Phillips family than what had happened to Dani, but his money made him useful. Rhys was thinking of how much Dani had been hurt and trying to tell himself this was justice. Poison was the word Kane Phillips had used. Somehow this was all leaving a nasty taste.  
  
*****  
  
Kirsty was frantic. She'd been to the hospital but was told they'd already gone. The bus to Yabbie Creek was leaving and impulsively she'd jumped on board, but going to the house proved fruitless. Mrs Phillips kept yelling Kane wasn't in and to go away and leave them alone. And then she remembered their special place - the tiny rock strewn cove on the rough Yabbie Creek beach, where before they'd run away together they'd meet, hidden away from a hostile world. It was where she eventually found him, silhouetted in the sun, skimming stones on the water.  
  
"Kane! Kane! Kane!" she shouted his name over and over, her voice competing against the roar of the wind and the sea.  
  
At last he stopped and looked around puzzled as if he'd heard something, not thinking to look upwards. Laughing at his confusion, Kirsty scrambled down, unaware the person who'd been stalking her for some time now was watching with great interest. 


	7. Chapter 7

***CHAPTER 7***  
  
Scott Phillips, Kane's older brother, watched from his vantage point above, confident he couldn't be seen. He was used to walking in shadows, sizing up situations to his own advantage. He had followed Kirsty from his aunt's house and it looked like it hadn't been a wasted journey. He smiled grimly, wondering how much the Sutherland chick would pay for his silence.  
  
*****  
  
There is no time, nothing but each other. She draws closer.  
  
"Kane!"  
  
He turns and sees her and for a moment stops. Laughing and crying, they come together, two parts becoming whole. She looks into his blue eyes and knows he is her soul-mate. Electric runs through him as they touch. Without her he is nothing. He is her breath, her reason for living. She is his destiny.  
  
"Babe, don't cry," he whispers.  
  
Her tears mingle with his own when their faces brush. They listen silently to the music of the sea, holding each other close. They have each other and it is enough.  
  
*****  
  
Rhys and Shelley were arguing again, their voices carrying through from the back room. Shelley thought Rhys had behaved like a thug and Rhys thought it had been the only way to get through to Kane Phillips. The normally laid back Nick Smith tensed. A few minutes ago he and Jade had been laughing, fooling, on top of the world. Going to the Sutherlands these days was like walking a minefield.   
  
"Fancy the diner?" he asked.  
  
"I'd best check on Dani first. She might want to come too." Jade ran halfway up the stairs and shouted her a few times, but there was no response. She turned to Nick and shrugged, puzzled. "She must be out. Kirsty too. Wonder where?"  
  
"You're about due to tune into Kirsty's mind, aren't you?" Nick grinned.  
  
"Don't, Nick. It only happens when it's something bad and I don't want anything bad to happen to Kirsty."  
  
"Hey, babe, I was only joking!" he gave her a reassuring hug.  
  
Jade smiled. Without Nick she'd never have got through all this. "The diner it is. I need lots of chocolate. Chocolate mud cake and chocolate milk shake will do for starters."  
  
The music crashed through Dani's earphones, drowning out all other sound. No more raised voices. No more being pulled apart. The plan came into her mind again and again she pushed it back. But still it persisted, promising and promising no more pain.   
  
*****  
  
Never wanting to break free. Never wanting to be alone any more. Their arms entwined around each other's waist they sit gazing out towards the timeless ocean. She rests her head on his shoulder and feels safe and loved. He strokes her hair tenderly and wishes he could take away all her sadness.  
  
"I'm sorry. About my Dad."  
  
"Babe, he was only protecting his family."  
  
"No. It's no excuse, Kane, and you know it."  
  
"I don't remember much about that night. Being tired. Walking all the way to Summer Bay to talk to Flynn only he's not available. Going down to the beach, running and running, then the storm, getting drenched, but just wanting to run. I don't know, babe, maybe being so tired all the time is making me crazy. Maybe I broke in and just don't remember."  
  
She turns to gaze up into his eyes. "I know it wasn't you, Kane. Because I believe in you. Because I love you."  
  
*****  
  
Clara Denton didn't normally yell down phones, but she was furious. "Flynn, this has ruined everything! I was confident I could get Kane and Dani together for mediation. Now he won't trust anyone, least of all counsellors!"   
  
"I thought I could stop things getting out of hand..."  
  
With an effort Clara kept her temper in check. "I appreciate that, but where do we go from here? Yabbie Creek has picked up on the hatred of the Phillips and Kane is already on the edge. His aunt's fine about him going out, but it's still 24-7 care. I'd planned to discuss hiring a nurse to help out sometimes but Rose won't be in any mood to talk to me now."  
  
"You want me to try?"  
  
"No." Clara sighed. "Emotions are running too high and in my experience it's best to let the dust settle. It would get like this years ago when Richie and Joe Phillips caused some upset or other in the Bay, long before Kane or even Scott were born."  
  
"Ah. Speaking of Richie. I looked up what action was taken after your report on him like you asked. Clara, there's no easy way to tell you this. The night you left there was a fire, no one hurt, but..."  
  
Clara sank down in despair when their conversation ended. Her report had been careful not to betray Rose's confidence, but it would have made sure no harm came to Richie's two sons. It should have been duplicated several times and forwarded to various departments, but it was never even read... and two children were left to fight for themselves.  
  
*****  
  
Sea spray falls with rain and a creeping tide touches their feet, but they are reluctant to move. To move will destroy their fragile world. Together they are strong. Divided they are lost.   
  
"I wish," Kane says, "we could sail away. Just the two of us."  
  
"You'd be captain of our ship. The wind in our hair and the sun on our faces."  
  
"You'd be the most beautiful lady who ever sailed the oceans. They'd write songs about you for thousands of years."  
  
A white-tipped wave breaks on to the shore, shattering the illusion. They are forced to stand, holding on to each other's hands to keep their balance, laughing, yet painfully aware reality is pushing down like a stone. Hearts beating too fast. The taste of salt from the sea and their tears as they retrace their steps. They hesitate at the top, keeping back time, and below the water is washing over the rocks.   
  
His voice is thick with emotion. "You know I love you too much to snatch you away from your family."  
  
Crying softly, she buries her head in his chest, drawing strength from him. "I know. Dani needs me and I...and I...Kane, it has to be alright one day. I'll wait forever for you."  
  
The traffic on Yabbie Creek Road was reaching its peak hour crescendo, horns blaring, windscreens swishing away rain, commuters driving home. One of the cars skidded to a halt. Rhys jumped out and Seb slowly got out of the passenger side, unable to meet Kirsty's gaze. It was over.  
  
"Is that how little you think of your sister? You'd rather spend time with him?"  
  
"Dad, it's not like that..."  
  
"Don't play me for a fool, Kirsty. It's either him or your family. And if you choose him, don't come near any of us ever again."  
  
She feels Kane squeeze her hand. Silently telling her he'll always wait for her. Telling her he'll always love her, no matter what. Her hand slips unwillingly from his grasp.  
  
So the rain falls steadily and the traffic flows on. Rhys gives Kane the look of hatred he's perfected, and climbs into the driver's seat. Seb keeps his head down. Kirsty looks back through the rain spattered window until the car is swallowed into the distance.   
  
From the shop doorway, Scott Phillips watched the drama unfold, cursing his lost opportunity to make a fast buck. But there were other ways. His mind clicked into overdrive.  
  
For a long time Kane stood alone, the scent of her light summer perfume still with him. Divided and lost. And a family secret about to blow wide open. 


	8. Chapter 8

***CHAPTER 8***  
  
"Yo, bro!"   
  
Kane laughed in disbelief. "Scotty!"  
  
The brothers could have been mistaken for twins until Scott stepped into the powerful beam of the torch. Even then difference was slight. The elder brother was taller, his features sharper, his hair darker. It was their eyes that most told them apart. Scott's were secretive and cunning, Kane's deep blue and trusting.   
  
"What you doing sneaking round the back way? Auntie Rose thought we were gonna be murdered!" Kane laughed again as he dropped the torch to his side. It was so, so good to see a friendly face after the heartache of parting from Kirsty, after all the recent threats.  
  
Scott shrugged. He'd been checking out the state of the house and whether or not Kane still had a car. There hadn't been time to do any of that last time in Yabbie Creek - he'd had to get back to meet the curfew deadline at the halfway house in Pioneer Bay. But this time he had a pass for a few days to visit his poor old sick aunt.  
  
"Habit," he replied, nodding at Rose. "G'day!"  
  
"What do you want, Scott?" she looked at him coldly. Kane had been led astray by his older brother too often before. "If you've broken out..."  
  
"What do you take me for? Got released all legit couple of weeks back. If anyone'd bothered visiting, they'd've known."  
  
"Jeez, mate, I've been kinda busy..." Kane was guilt stricken. He'd barely given Scott a second thought since moving back from the city.  
  
"No worries." His brother picked up the bag he'd rested on the porch. "Thought we'd crack a few tinnies by way of celebration."  
  
"I won't have drink in the house." The statement was crushingly final, but Scott heard the quiver in Rose's voice.  
  
He grinned sardonically as he tore open a can. "Fine. We'll drink out here then." He pulled a second can from the bag. "Mate?"   
  
Kane hesitated. "Auntie Rose doesn't like it."  
  
"We've a lot to catch up on. Three years without grog - and family - is a long time."  
  
Family. This guy had grown up with him, fought with him, looked out for him, survived with him. He took a beer.   
  
*****  
  
They were sailing across a vast, moon-shimmering ocean under a star-lit midnight blue sky. Kane stood behind her, guiding her hands on the steering wheel, their faces cheek to cheek, gliding towards the brightness of the distant moon and forever. Then everywhere went black and icy cold water was sloshing into the boat...   
  
"Kirsty! Kirsty, wake up!"  
  
"Jade!" She sat up in bed, waking slowly.   
  
"You were shouting for Kane. I thought it was over?"  
  
"It was. It is."  
  
"No, it isn't. Don't you care about Dani?"  
  
"Of course I care!" Kirsty blinked back the tears. "But I'm empty without Kane. I love him so much."  
  
"You can't possibly love him. He's sick!"  
  
"Jade, he's not like that. Not now. Please, I need someone to understand..."  
  
"I'll never, everunderstand." Her twin climbed back into bed and turned her back. Kirsty wept softly into her pillow. She didn't know how much longer she could stand this.  
  
*****  
  
Scott cursed his luck. So the car was repossessed when Kane gave up work. The house obviously wasn't worth much and Aunt Rose owed a packet in medical bills. He was determined this wasn't going to be a totally wasted journey though. If he got Kane on side they could become as powerful a force as Richie and Joe Phillips had once been.   
  
"You owe me big time."  
  
Kane looked queasily up at him. He felt he wanted to throw up but Scott was drinking hard. "Yeh? Why?"  
  
"Cos I'm still looking out for you. The Suthos should never have crossed my kid bro."  
  
"What?" Kane's sickness reached a new level. A knot tightened in his stomach.  
  
Scott grinned. "I was coming to see you in Yabbie Creek, but there was a sudden change of plan. The windows were open in the caravan park so I jumped off the bus."  
  
"YOU trashed the place?"   
  
"Yup! Made a real good job of it too! Then I shot through and lay low for a while. Now I hear they didn't get the cops in after all. Cool move."  
  
"Jeez, mate!" Kane stood up. What was it with his family and their warped sense of loyalty? "What the hell'd you do that for? Dani thinks I'm playing mind games."  
  
Scott staggered to his feet, following Kane inside the house. He swung him round by the shoulder. "What's the matter with you? I do you a favour and this is the thanks I get! The Kirsty chick turn you down then? Maybe you should've put the hard word on her, she looks easy enough."  
  
Nobody insulted Kirsty, nobody. "You want thanks? Here's your thanks, mate!" Kane's fist caught him square on the jaw. He knew he wouldn't win. Even drunk, Scott was stronger. It was like the years rolled back, fending off the blows that rained down, head pounding, lights flashing before the blackness. Except this time it wasn't Kane's voice yelling at him to stop...  
  
"You talk too loud when you drink just like Richie always did. I've told the Sutherlands everything. Now get out of here or I call the police." Rose was shaking, terrified.  
  
Scott moved towards her. Kane pulled his last ounce of strength from somewhere and blocked his path. "Leave her. Auntie Rose has been real good to us."  
  
His brother laughed mockingly. "Oh, for Chrissake, she's been lying to you for years. She's not your aunt. She's never been your aunt. She's your Ma."  
  
*****  
  
The tranquillisers made Dani drowsy and she'd fallen asleep leaning against Shelley till the phone woke her. She breathed a tear-swept sigh as Rose Phillips' quick, jumbled message ended and the answerphone bleeped. Rhys pressed mute on the remote and the late night movie cast silent dancing shadows on the walls.   
  
"I suppose we owe Kane an apology," Shelley said slowly.  
  
"We owe him nothing," Rhys replied.  
  
Dani sensed another row. It was never going to be over. Only sleep took her away from all this. She wished she could close her eyes and sleep forever.  
  
*****  
  
Kane fell back, catching hold of a chair, shaking his head in stunned disbelief. It made a peculiar kind of sense. The feeling he never belonged. The arguments. Dad locking him outside. When he was ten he'd had a meningitis scare and after that Auntie Rose, the widow of Dad's brother Joe, and a vague figure no-one talked about, abruptly appeared in his life, taking him on days out, buying him and Scott presents. For some reason Scott never liked her, but Kane often snuck off on his own to Yabbie Creek only for Richie to come banging on the door and order him in the car.  
  
"Is it true?"   
  
"Kane, I'm so sorry..."   
  
A myriad of emotions were swirling round inside him. "Why? Why did you and Uncle Joe give me up?"  
  
Scott guffawed drunkenly. "You're kidding me. You can't be that   
  
naive!"  
  
Rose stared at him in dread, her weak blue eyes filled with fear. Only three people ever knew of the angry conversation in the Phillips' house that day. Herself, Diane and Richie. Kane had been in hospital recovering from meningitis. Thirteen-year-old Scott had been at school. Hadn't he? Nobody bothered whether the boys went to school or not. Vaguely she remembered she imagined she'd heard someone   
  
scurrying away when she'd stormed out of the room.  
  
Scott's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Guess what, Kane, I'm gonna tell you the full story..." 


	9. Chapter 9

*****CHAPTER 9*****  
  
Clara Denton paced the room of her daughters's house in Perth, rocking her baby granddaughter. Lauren was teething and babysitting nowadays guaranteed interrupted sleep for both parties. But Clara's mind was filled with Dani, Kane and Kirsty anyway. It was eerie how in some ways their story echoed Rose, Richie and Diane's. Clara pushed back the years.....  
  
.....Through the window the red evening sun is setting on the water and there is a smell of polish and a clattering of mop buckets as the cleaners begin their evening blitz of Yabbie Creek Medical Centre. Rose Phillips' face is clouded and she's been crying.   
  
"Thank you for seeing me without an appointment. And so late. Only I noticed you were still open and I had to talk to someone."   
  
"Rose, I chose counselling because I wanted to help people if I could."  
  
"This must go no further. Promise."  
  
"You have my word."  
  
"It's his birthday today," she whispers, and is silent for a long time.  
  
"Joe's?" Clara asks at last. She knew Rose only slightly, but it was widely known that three or four years ago Rose's husband Joe had died in a car crash and she'd since severed all links with the Phillips family.   
  
"No. My son's. He's three. He lives with his father."  
  
"Do you see him much?"  
  
"No, never. I gave him up."  
  
"You obviously miss him. You have a right as a mother..."  
  
"I don't want to see him. Ever!"  
  
Clara starts, taken aback by her vehemence.  
  
"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to snap." She gazes beyond Clara towards the sunset over Summer Bay, sighing deeply before she begins, pouring out her heart as the evening shadows lengthen.   
  
"His father is Joe's brother Richie. Joe and me, we hadn't slept together for several months. I was convinced he was seeing someone else and I still loved him so much. To get his attention I began flirting with Richie...but then things went too far. Kane was conceived the night Joe died in the crash. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant, hoping if I ignored it all it would somehow go away - stupid, I know, but I didn't know what else to do. But I hated my baby. Every time I looked at him all I saw was Richie, all I remembered was Joe dying alone. I wrote to tell Richie he had a son. He wanted Kane for no other reason than he likes to own things - people, property, it doesn't matter. His name was on the birth certificate so he claimed him. I didn't want Kane so I let him go. There was no problem with Diane. Diane's too frightened of Richie to go against him, too cowed by him to leave him."  
  
"Rose, I'm leaving very, very soon for Perth. I'm due to see Richie before I go. Perhaps I could speak with him for you or I could arrange for you to see another couns..."  
  
"No! It's for the best. I needed to talk and now I'm done. You must never tell anyone."  
  
"Whatever a client tells me remains confidential."  
  
Rose nods as she picks up her shopping. Clara is left with the feeling something important has been left unsaid.....  
  
  
  
.....Lauren snuggled sleepily into the crook of her grandmother's shoulder, soft and warm, and light as a feather until laid gently down, leaving a delicious aching in Clara's arms. It must be a terrible, terrible thing to lose a child. A terrible, terrible anger that made a mother walk away. Betrayal was a powerful emotion. Like Rose, Richie and Diane before them, Dani, Kane and Kirsty were struggling to deal with it all. There were differences - Rose had been a willing partner and Dani hadn't got pregnant - but some of the similarities had shaken her. Clara looked out on to the lights of the Perth skyline, thinking again of Dani, Kane and Kirsty, remembering again Rose looking out towards Summer Bay the day she told her secret. Clara stopped dead, in a blinding flash suddenly realising the shocking truth.   
  
*****  
  
"Who's my Dad?" Kane had long since stopped drinking, gone far beyond feeling sick or tired. He had to know where he fitted into this alien new world and, drunk or not, Scott was the only one willing to give him any answers.  
  
Scott was a survivor because he'd grown up having to be. When they'd been kids Kane had been useful, smaller, easier to blame, wanting to do everything his big brother did. Sometimes they'd even been pretty good mates, united against Mum and Dad. But Scott was nothing if not resourceful, a snippet of unformation here, a whisper there, carefully stored to be used to his own advantage at some future date. He'd kept Auntie Rose's secret as an insurance policy. Now he knew there was no blackmail money in the pot and the insurance wasn't going to pay out. He'd borne the brunt of his father's anger after Rose's first visit. Mostly it was Kane the oldies picked on after a blue, but this time he was safe in hospital so Scott was yelled at, beaten, left to sleep outdoors. Other things changed. Mum drank more heavily, popped even more pills. Dad became more and more violent. Every time after her visits it was the same. Kane was always too full of Auntie Rose to notice. Scott took her money and gifts and despised her. Revenge would be sweet.  
  
"You know what she says, bro? You know why she had you put out for the garbo?"   
  
  
  
Rose tried to speak, to stop him, but her voice locked in her throat.   
  
The drink was affecting Scott. He took another swig from the whiskey bottle and grinned. The room was spinning and everything struck him as funny, Rose's face, Kane's question, the blood on his shirt where Kane had caught him back in the fight. He was giggling like he'd never stop. "See, mate, Auntie Rose came to see the oldies when you had the meningitis thing. Seems she'd suddenly decided she wanted to be a Ma to you."  
  
"Who's my Dad?" Kane said again. "Richie or Joe? Who?"  
  
Scott laughed hysterically. "Oh, Richie Phillips was your Dad alright. Betcha he'd've been real proud of you! Chip off the old block and all that. This is beaut, mate, wait'll you hear it! You know what she says? She says he raped her." 


	10. Chapter 10

***CHAPTER TEN***  
  
Rose keeps an image in her mind of a thin, pale undernourished boy with bright blue eyes that light up whenever he sees her. She knew Richie had only phoned after all these years, to tell her Kane was seriously ill in hospital in the big smoke, because he couldn't be bothered with it all. She had meant to visit Kane only once but it tore at her heart to see the other children surrounded by visitors and gifts. She'd gone back home, packed some things, booked into a hotel she couldn't really afford and sat with him every day. Now he was better, running round the ward, up to mischief, laughing almost as much as the other kids. There was talk of his discharge and she was determined to set wheels in motion.  
  
The journey from the city hospital has been long and hot and she gulps down the water Diane provides, her hand trembling as she returns the glass. If Diane is aware of anything, she doesn't show it. Richie drinks a beer and says nothing.  
  
Finally Rose breaks the silence. "I want Kane back."  
  
"No," Richie says simply, half amused.  
  
"He's my child!" she screams at him.   
  
"You gave him away, Rosey." This is a game to Richie. Small and skinny, Kane is a disappointment compared to sturdy Scott, but, now he's over the meningitis, he'll toughen him up further, indoctrinate him and Scott into the Phillips way of running things, fill the gap left by Joe.  
  
"You know why I gave him away."  
  
His face darkens. Diane shrinks back, afraid. For ten years Rose has never admitted it, even to herself. She takes a deep breath. "You raped me."  
  
He laughs. "Now I don't think so, Rosebaby. You invited me in, made me at home..."  
  
"You raped me. You know that as well as I do. Kane was born out of that rape. And I want him back."   
  
She swings round to Diane for support, but violence is nothing new to Diane and for her own protection she has retreated into herself, not looking at either. He walks towards Rose, touches her arm lightly and she flinches as if touched by red hot coal. She'd thought she could do this, she'd thought she could be strong for her son's sake. But Richie has all the power and she crumples.  
  
"Kane is mine," he says slowly, menacingly, his breath warm on her neck. "You'll never tell anyone what happened, and even if you did who would believe you?"  
  
Rose backs away, shaking, knowing he's right. If she fights for custody of Kane the stigma of the rape might become public knowledge. And she's still not strong enough fo face that, not even for a small boy with bright blue eyes.  
  
She pauses by the door, imagines she hears footsteps, but it's only her heart hammering against her chest. "I WILL see Kane. You won't stop me from seeing him at least." She sweeps from the house with her as much dignity as she can muster and collapses sobbing outside.  
  
*****  
  
Scott had finally slumped into a drunken stupor. His words had been like a physical blow. It took Kane an age to catch his breath and when he did and looked again at Auntie Rose - he still couldn't think of her as anything other than Auntie Rose - she was shaking. Or maybe that was himself. "What Scott said...my Dad...he did that to you? That makes me...part of both of you, part of everything..."   
  
Rose wiped her eyes, tried to steady her voice. "It doesn't make you anything, Kane, other than my son. You're not to blame. You must never feel..."  
  
"I don't know what I feel any more." Numb. Hurt, betrayed. Guilty and dirty and ashamed. Like the world is sinking, like the world has ended. Like your skin is crawling with a searing heat that touches every part of you, outside, inside, deep in the furthest recesses of your mind. The part of you that is you, the part of you that you might share slowly, slowly, little by little, the part of you that you might keep, every secret hope and dream, all of it torn out and trampled. "He really...he really did that...?"  
  
Rose nodded, still crying. "Your Uncle Joe had died that day. I was distraught. He wasn't perfect, he'd been in and out of jail, we had our fights, but I'd always loved him. Richie called round to offer his sympathy. He'd been drinking quite a bit, but, like me, he was upset. We talked about Joe. Looked at old photos. Reminisced. I remember thinking Richie was pretty good company. And then things changed. He said now Joe was gone..." Her body tensed. "I told him no. I told him no over and over but he wouldn't listen." She looked at Kane, wondering whether to continue. The tears were streaming down his cheeks. "I never wanted you to know this."  
  
"It's gotta be in me, hasn't it?" he said. "There's gotta be somethin' real evil in me from Dad."  
  
"No! What he was didn't make you a..." she couldn't bring herself to say the word. "I understood better than anyone what Dani Sutherland was going through, but I owed you. I owed you at the very least for the first ten years of your life."  
  
He ran his fingers through his hair, took a swig of whiskey from the half-empty bottle Scott had been nursing in his lap.  
  
"Don't," Rose said.  
  
"Why not? I'm just like my Dad." But he slammed the bottle down anyway.   
  
"Kane, Richie thought he had the right to do what he did. You did a terrible thing, but when Dani made realise that, you accepted the responsibility, tried to change. You're nothing like your father."  
  
He wanted to believe that, he really did, but Richie had stained him. He needed air. He went out outside, surprised by the daylight. Last night seemed a lifetime ago.   
  
*****  
  
"So you were right. It wasn't Kane," Dani finished.  
  
"I knew it!" Kirsty flung her arms round her sister.  
  
"I just thought you should know." Dani kept her arms folded and didn't return the hug. It was better this way. Don't get close to anyone and make it easier for them when the time comes. Let them remember you distant and cold when they turn back to their lives.  
  
"What's going on?" Jade asked, sweeping into the room in a flurry of half-dress, looking for her ear-rings, catching Kirsty's look of relief and the unreturned hug.  
  
Kirsty swung around, unable to hide her smile. "It was Scott Phillips who broke in. Not Kane! I knew all along it wasn't Kane."  
  
"Big deal!"  
  
"Jade...!"  
  
"What do you expect me to say, Kirsty? So it wasn't Kane - well, bully for Kane! It doesn't matter what he does or doesn't do, he's still a monster, isn't he, Dan?"  
  
"Whatever."  
  
Kirsty jerked her head up. Wordlessly, she walked over and sat on the bed next to Dani.  
  
"So...you're going out with Nick?" Dani asked.  
  
Jade brightened, relieved she was okay. "We're meeting Bethany and Adam. We're going to the fair Beth and me went to the other week."  
  
"Nice. Have a good time."  
  
"Thanks. We will."  
  
"You know I'm always here for you, don't you, Dani?" Kirsty said, as Jade left.  
  
"I know. I'm fine."  
  
Unlike Jade, though, Kirsty didn't look fooled.  
  
*****  
  
The blinding headache hit Rose suddenly. She tried to shout for Kane, but her thoughts jumbled together. There was a strange buzzing in her ears and a numbness down the right side of her body and finally a blackness. 


	11. Chapter 11

*****CHAPTER 11*****  
  
The ambos carried the still figure of Rose Phillips out on a stretcher. Kane thought he saw Rhys Sutherland pull up briefly in his car, but he was so tired that had to be his imagination. Scott hadn't been any help, staggering around, cursing when he spilt his coffee, shrugging when Kane asked if he was coming to the hospital. "She either karks it or she doesn't, mate. Me, I'm having brekkie."  
  
The doctor said Rose had suffered a stroke and would be monitored over the next forty-eight hours. If she woke she'd need therapy and may never fully recover. Another stroke could kill her.  
  
He dozed on a chair in the waiting room of the emergency department until a nurse shook him awake, telling him he'd be more use to his aunt if he got home and had a proper sleep, they'd let him know if anything happened. Maybe they were right, he'd never been so tired. Scott wasn't in so he showered and crashed and dreamt of Kirsty.  
  
*****  
  
Scott had rattled round the house looking for loose cash. Rose didn't fail him, he found a stash, freshly drawn out of the bank and earmarked for some bills. The chick he met in the bar was real impressed with the amount of money he had to blow.   
  
*****  
  
"Kirsty, he looked rough, reeked of alcohol..."  
  
"So you make it up as you go along as usual!"   
  
"You have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
"Neither do you, Dad..."  
  
"You explain it to me then." Rhys said sarcastically. Shelley had been adamant they at least clear the air with Mrs Phillips and Rhys had gone along with that - an apology to Kane would have stuck in his throat. But when he'd got to the Phillips' house Rose was being taken away in an ambulance, Kane looked like he'd gone ten rounds in a boxing ring, and Scott was leaning drunkenly against the front door. It was obvious the Phillips brothers had been in a bar brawl and at some stage when they got home Rose Phillips had got in the way.   
  
"I don't know... but it doesn't have to be the way you say."  
  
"Have it your way." Rhys couldn't be bothered arguing any more, he just needed his daughter to know what Kane Phillips was really like. Kirsty may have kept her promise not to see Kane, but he hated the way she kept taking his side, kept insisting the family should sit down and talk with him. No chance! Clara Denton repeatedly suggested the same thing and he and Shelley repeatedly told her there was no way they were putting Dani through the hell of seeing her rapist again. Things had already spiralled out of control.  
  
*****  
  
Dave Fletcher sat in his Yabbie Creek office, fuming. He hadn't forgotten the punch Kane Phillips had swung at him that day outside Summer Bay Hospital or the taste of the blood running down his face. Now some people in Summer Bay, even Rhys Sutherland, were backing down over his plans for Phillips. Someone had to pay. And the price would be high.  
  
*****  
  
"'Cos she karked it, ya bloody drongo!" Scott said, losing patience. Rose's credit card had been burning a hole in his pocket ever since he'd found her number. Zoe, the chick he'd met last night, had hinted she'd like to meet up again, but she didn't like to leave her friend, if only Scott had a mate...but, Jeez, all Kane was interested in was this Kirsty Sutho, who was way, way out of his league.   
  
"We could hire a car, drive up the coast..."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Well, like now of course, when d'you think?"  
  
"No, I mean Auntie Rose. Ma. Whatever. When'd it happen? Why didn't you wake me?"  
  
Scott shrugged vaguely. "The doc rang coupla hours ago. About these chicks..."  
  
"I already told you, I'm not going."  
  
Scott argued a while longer. He knew he could make Kane go, but Zoe mightn't want to know if Scott turned up looking like he'd been in a fight.  
  
"You'll keep," he threatened darkly as he left.   
  
Kane felt the world slipping away. After all he'd discovered in the past couple of days, about Rose, about Richie, and now she was dead, and Scott carrying on as though nothing had happened. Things might have been okay if he was with Kirsty, but he couldn't be with Kirsty because of what he'd done to Dani and because of Richie. Kirsty deserved far, far more than someone who had all this evil from Richie inside him. More than all the sadness that falling in love with a Phillips would bring her. He was crying as he tapped into the mobile.   
  
*****  
  
Dani smiled. The smile was fake but nobody saw through it. As a counsellor, Mum was hopeless when it came to her own kids. Dani had spent the morning helping out at the Drop-in Centre, then they'd treated themselves to lunch at the diner and not once did Shelley suspect what was going on inside her head. So Dani smiled when Shelley said she seemed more like her old self and Shelley believed the smile. Last night there'd been another row. Kirsty had been trying to tell Dani about falling in love with Kane, but Shelley overheard and ended the conversation. Like everyone else, she reckoned it was best if Kane was never even mentioned to Dani again. Dani didn't know if it was or not, nothing took away the nightmares. But it didn't matter now, not now she'd decided to end the pain forever. She said she was going to sunbathe on Summer Bay beach. Then she caught the bus to Yabbie Creek.  
  
*****  
  
Kirsty's mobile bleeped and she glanced at the screen. Her heart froze as she read the message.  
  
I luv u 2 much 2 eva hurt u & becoz I luv u I hv 2 go away 4eva. I am so sorry xxxxxx Kane  
  
She called him back but his mobile was switched off and the phone in the Phillips house rang unanswered. Where was he? Didn't he know, no matter what, she'd always love him? The tears rained down Kirsty's face so fast she could barely see. This time she couldn't let him go, not for anyone. She'd been a fool to think she could. This time she'd give up everything to be with him. If she ever found him again.  
  
*****  
  
So where do you go when the love is cold and the emptiness is all around? When another day fades to black and white and the pain never leaves your heart? Sometimes you just want to walk forever, past the edge of time, if it will make all the hurt go away, if it will make everything all right, if it will...  
  
Kane looked once towards Summer Bay, then wiped away the tears. It was better for Kirsty this way. He didn't need any luggage, not where he was going. And he didn't know where that was, only that it was somewhere past the edge of time.  
  
*****  
  
Dani had noticed it often enough on the way to her counselling sessions with Clara Denton. At a certain point as you turned off Yabbie Creek Road you caught a quick, fleeting glimpse of an old bridge, rarely used nowadays, that led out of Yabbie Creek itself. The bridge's view from one side was of ancient red sandstone cliffs towering deep in the distance, from the other, far away, the sea touched the sky like the beginning of the world. It was a magical place, steeped in the history of Aboriginal dreamtime. But it had a darker side. It was a known suicide spot.  
  
It was where Dani stood, shivering though the day was hot, looking down to the water at her wavering reflection, wondering how cold, how quick, how silent the moment would be. 


	12. Chapter 12

***CHAPTER 12***  
  
By mid-afternoon Summer Bay was sweltering in a baking heat and the residents of the little seaside town, although used to glorious soaring temperatures, were finding it difficult to stay cool.   
  
At the diner Colleen scooped herself an extra large sundae while Alf mopped his brow, half hating the weather, half glad sales of ice cream and cold drinks had gone through the roof. Irene sat outside, fanning herself, smiling as she recalled her phone chat with Gypsy and Will. Seb went for a swim with a few of the guys, trying hard to push thoughts of Kirsty to the back of his mind. Leah took VJ down to the beach where there was a gentle sea breeze and laughed as she watched him and his new friend, the son of a couple on holiday from England, kicking a beach ball around.  
  
Some seemed to feel the oppressive heat more than others. Dave Fletcher, even in his slick new car with the air conditioning giving out icy blasts, cursed the other traffic under his breath as he drove into the Bay. And Jade gave in to an overwhelming sadness and wept.  
  
*****  
  
For Scott Phillips life had never been sweeter. Money in his pocket, a new chick, his freedom after three years stuck in a hot, sweaty jail. Zoe and her friend Andrea had arranged to meet him in a fashionable new bar just recently opened in Summer Bay. It was expensive, Zoe said, but wasn't she was worth it?  
  
He was still narked about Kane though. The lie about Rose being dead wasn't planned, but, Jeez, the guy had made him do his block, just didn't know a good thing when it was hitting him in the face. The longer Rose stayed in hospital the better it was for them. Scott would cross the little problem of the credit card withdrawals when he came to it. Anyways, if she died he wouldn't have the problem to cross and Kane would almost certainly inherit the house - and there was no way his bro would see him out on the streets, Scott himself would make sure of that, he thought, whistling cheerfully.  
  
*****  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Leah smiled at Jesse and introduced him to the English people. Tanned, fit, good-looking, he still made her heart flutter every time she saw him.  
  
"Sorry I'm late," Jesse said, passing her the picnic hamper. "Two kids were outside the gym bashing the hell out of each other. Someone had to separate them."  
  
"Good for you!" Leah said proudly. "Too many people turn away because it's easier."  
  
The words would come back to haunt her.  
  
*****  
  
Shelley swept her hair up from her neck so she could better feel the coolness of the fan, laughing at the story Flynn was telling her of the Drop-in client whose true reason for staying had turned out to be the selection of movies in the TV room. They both jumped up startled when Jade burst into the office.  
  
"Mum! Mum! It's Kirsty!" Jade was sobbing and taking whooping gulps of air as she fought for breath. It was rare for the asthma to trouble her these days and she had grown foolishly careless about carrying an inhaler. "She...she..."  
  
"It's alright, take your time." Inwardly, Shelley was shaking though outwardly she feigned calm. She put one arm reassuringly round her daughter while the other reached for the phone. "Rhys, quick! Jade needs her spare inhaler and I think something's wrong with Kirsty! It should be by the first aid box. Well, ask Dani, she'll know exactly where to look. But she must be! She promised me she'd be home by three!"  
  
Shelley turned hot and cold by turns, her mind in turmoil. She should never have trusted Dani alone when Dani was still so emotionally fragile...and what had happened to Kirsty?...  
  
The pain in Jade's chest tightened and she wished she could catch her breath, if only once, just to explain to Mum the physical pain was nothing compared to feeling Kirsty's heartache.  
  
*****  
  
"Her daughter's with her?" Clara had gone to see Rose after returning home from the week in Perth and discovered she was in hospital. She repeated the nurse's words in bewilderment, quite certain Rose Phillips didn't have a daughter.  
  
"I'm really sorry, I've been told it's strictly family only at present," the girl said apologetically, mistaking Clara's surprise for annoyance. She knew Clara Denton was a very well respected doctor herself and was uneasy at having no clear instructions over whether or not the family rule still applied to someone of high rank in the medical profession. "But Dr Abbott is very pleased with Mrs Phillips' progress and I'm allowed to pass on any messages."  
  
"Give her my regards, thank you, I'll speak with her...um...daughter," Clara replied, as Kirsty Sutherland staggered unsteadily from the ward, her face streaked with tears.   
  
Seeing Dani's counsellor, she sank weakly into a chair as if the whole world weighed down on her shoulders. "It's Kane. I came here to look for him and...and...Mrs Phillips told me she's his mother and...something else..."  
  
"I know," Clara said gently, stooping down beside her and squeezing her hands. Kirsty reminded her so much of her youngest daughter as a teenager and her heart went out to her.  
  
"You know?" For a fraction of a second Kirsty's shock checked the flow of tears. "About everything?"  
  
"About his father? Yes, I guessed. It's why I needed to speak with Rose. Keeping secrets bottled up inside does nobody any good."  
  
Kirsty shook her head. "Kane took it bad. He sent me...a message like...I don't know if it means he's going to..." She looked up at Clara in despair. "But I can't live without him. I love Dani so much and we've tried so hard to do the right thing, but I can't live without him. Without him, I'm already dead."  
  
*****  
  
Something breaks the tightness of the air, some imperceptible movement in the quiet loneliness. Someone watching. Dani turns slowly and sees him. Kane.   
  
Part of the mystical quality of the old bridge is its suddenness, the surrounding landscape offering only glimpses until you're there and caught in its history. So he sees her only when he reaches the bridge itself and seeing her sweeps him into the nightmare. He knows what must happen. He is too far away to stop her, yet the look on her face makes an unshakeable promise if he comes any closer. She is going to jump.  
  
WARNING:CHARACTER DEATHS IN NEXT CHAPTER  
  
?????...got you guessing...?????  
  
o) 


	13. Chapter 13

*****CHAPTER 13*****  
  
***WARNING: CHARACTER DEATHS IN THIS CHAPTER***  
  
"Don't!" His voice slices into the silence, the word echoing in the solitude.  
  
"Don't touch me!" Dani moves her ankle too fast as she backs away, but the pain barely registers.  
  
"Dani, I..."   
  
"Keep away!"  
  
He winces at the implication. "Jeez, you don't really think...?"  
  
"I don't know. After the mediation I thought for a little while..." She stares at him warily and swallows. Half of her believes she can trust him, the other half believes the nightmares. "Okay. Okay, if you're not stalking me, why else are you here? No-one ever uses this bridge now."  
  
"Cos I'm leaving. Go any other way out of Yabbie Creek and I'll only meet someone who hates me or hates someone in my family - and after a while you get tired of all the hate."  
  
"Leaving? You expect me to buy that? You haven't even got any bags!"  
  
He blinks in the strong sun as if waking. Like the fragments of a dream, somewhere in the back of his mind is the half formed idea of a high cliff or thundering train or speeding motorcycle, something fast, something furious to take him anywhere, anywhere out of the world. "I don't know where the hell I'm going. I'm too tired to care."  
  
Something in the way he says it strikes a chord within Dani. She stares down at the diamond patterns of sunlight fluctuating on the blue-green water, wondering how they ever got this far. "Yeh, well, you and me both, Kane, you and me both."   
  
*****  
  
Dave Fletcher knew he would be professional, as always, when he concluded business matters with the man who'd bought the old shop building from him and turned it into Summer Bay's most popular new bar, but in reality he was in no mood for meetings. Today would have been their wedding anniversary, if Sylvia had never fallen in love with Joe Phillips. The final humiliation. Every time he added to his property empire, Joe and Richie Phillips were there to bleed him dry with demands for protection money. Then Joe, even though he was already married, stole his fiancee. When he'd told Sylvia of Joe's death in the car crash he hoped she'd cry on his shoulder. Instead she'd gone down to the old bridge in Yabbie Creek and thrown herself into the swirling river.  
  
Dave turned the corner just as a figure stepped unexpectedly into the road. He made to hit the brakes, then the guy looked towards him. One of the Phillips boys, maybe the one who'd punched him, drunk and grinning like Joe had been when he told him he was seeing Sylvia. He found himself pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator. For Sylvia, for the humiliation, for the years and years of hate that had eaten away inside him. Most of all, for the hate.   
  
After the loud impact there was a momentary silence. Then came a ball of flame, a thick black smoke and a terrible smell of burning.  
  
*****  
  
"I know some of what you're going through."  
  
His statement takes her breath away and she swings round to face him but he doesn't meet her gaze. "I can't believe your arrogance! How can you know what it's like to be...to be raped?"   
  
"Doesn't matter how many times someone says they're sorry it's never gonna go away, is it?"  
  
"Oh, that's good, Kane, that's real good. What rape survival text book did you get that one out of?"  
  
"You know what I am?" To Dani's bewilderment, he sounds choked. "Someone born out of rape. You wanna know how that makes me feel? Like it happened to me. So I guess now I know, not all but maybe some, of what you're going through."  
  
Only a fluttering of wings and a rippling on the water breaks the long silence before Dani finds her voice, a couple of notches down in its anger. "That's not your fault, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But...dozens? hundreds?...of people around the world must be born out of rape. You going to stay a victim forever?"  
  
"Are you?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You dropped all your friends, you don't go out, you're a nervous wreck..."  
  
Rage surges through her. "So who's fault's that?"  
  
"Yeh, mine. And I wish I could go back and change things. But I can't." He looks up at her, his face soaked in tears. "My Auntie Rose is dead and I can't be with Kirsty cos she deserves a whole lot better than what I am so I'm butting out of everyone's lives. So don't stay a victim, Dani. You gotta face your fears one day."   
  
He turns back, lost in thoughts of where you go, without money, without family, without friends, without the only person you've ever truly loved.   
  
"Kane?"   
  
"Yeh?"   
  
"So do you."  
  
*****  
  
Leah was shaking, glad Jesse was beside her. They'd been leaving the beach. The sky had turned an ominous yellow and Jesse said he reckoned there was going to be a storm so they'd cut short their picnic. They'd been saying their farewells to the English family. She'd frowned when she'd noticed Scott Phillips, remarked to Jesse she thought it was Kane at first, and as they looked the car, with sudden deliberation, picked up speed and the driver's face was twisted with hate. At least the kids had been lagging behind, engrossed in watching some insect, and hadn't witnessed the murder itself, the fire alone had terrorized them. Their screams were still ringing in her ears. She clutched VJ's hand tight.  
  
"The cops will be breaking it to him now but he's gonna need a mate," Jesse said. "I'd go myself but Leah, VJ...There's Kirsty Sutherland, but her family..." his voice trailed off. There was nobody else. It spoke volumes about Summer Bay.  
  
Flynn nodded. "I understand. Thanks for telling me. He's probably still at the hospital with his aunt so I'll try there first."  
  
Leah's eyes were brimming with tears. "The worst thing is, that day in the diner. I wanted to yell at everyone to stop all the hatred, but I didn't. I just turned away."  
  
"Hey, you wanted it to stop," Jesse said, picking up VJ and planting a tender, reassuring kiss on Leah's forehead. "There's a lot of people in the Bay need to take a good long look at themselves."  
  
*****  
  
Kirsty hadn't gotten over the shock of Mum, Dad and Jade turning up out of the blue but she was glad to see them. It had been unnerving earlier to see the two stretchers being carried through, both patients with a blanket covering their head. She had clung to Clara in dread of one being Kane.  
  
"I TOLD Mum and Dad you were okay," Jade smiled, able to breathe normally since she'd used her inhaler. "I told them I was only picking up your..." she was suddenly serious. "I don't know what. Like my heart's broke in two."  
  
"Jade, you dag!" Kirsty smiled too, but Jade was right about the heart.   
  
Rhys returned from Reception. "Nobody of Dani's description's been brought in. And the police won't put out a search until twenty-four hours have elapsed. They said from all accounts it didn't sound like Dani was suicidal."  
  
"Dani?" Kirsty went cold.  
  
"Dani's missing." Shelley couldn't believe she was saying it. She felt numb.   
  
"Omigod, supposing she's gone down to the old Yabbie Creek bridge!" Kirsty's hands shot to her mouth as she recollected following Dani's gaze at the turning point off Yabbie Creek Road. She swung tearfully round to Clara. "But what about Kane? We still don't know where he is! Unless he's gone...?"  
  
Rhys clenched his fists. "If that animal's done anything to her..."  
  
"Dad, he wouldn't!"  
  
Only Flynn's arrival prevented another argument. "The cops...do you know if they've spoken to Kane?" He brushed back his soaking wet hair. The storm that had been threatening all afternoon had finally hit.  
  
"What's he done?"  
  
"It's nothing like that, Rhys. Scott Phillips has been knocked down and killed and it wasn't an accident. The driver died too. It was Dave Fletcher, Leah recognised him. I don't think Kane knows about his brother yet."  
  
Rhys drew in a sharp breath. "I should have realised Dave Fletcher was a ticking time bomb. But if Kane Phillips has touched my little girl I'll still kill him with my bare hands."   
  
Kirsty felt a black despair. Even two deaths, even Summer Bay driving Dani and Kane to the point of suicide, it wasn't enough to stop the hatred. 


	14. Chapter 14

*****CHAPTER 14*****  
  
  
  
The air breaks suddenly. Lightning streaks across the sky, the thunder gradually follows, and a torrential rain stirs the river and shakes the trees and splashes noisily down against the bridge.  
  
"We oughta find some shelter." Kane looks doubtfully at the land, then at Dani. "You okay?"   
  
She digs her nails into her palms, swallowing over and over. Kane is the last person she wants to confide in but there's no-one else. "I don't like thunder."   
  
"The storm's a way away. Too long a gap between the thunder and lightning. Yabbie Creek, the Bay, we're prob'ly just the tail end."  
  
But she's still shaking so he changes the subject, casting round for inspiration. He'd been ten years old when Auntie Rose told him the story and it stuck in his mind because it was the first time, apart from school, anyone ever told him a story, the first time anyone ever sat with him because he was sick. "My Auntie Rose told me the Aborigines have a dreamtime story for this place, how the moon came down to sleep on the river and the starlight was created..."  
  
The thunder rolls again and Dani shudders in terror. He hesitates uncertainly, then walks slowly across the bridge to its centre. They stand facing each other alone for the first time since the day they both want to forget and remember constantly.  
  
*****  
  
Rhys didn't like the person he'd become. He hadn't been proud of himself for a long time now. He stared ahead at the road darkened by the heavy rain. He'd seen Kirsty's face when he'd said he'd kill Kane, even Shelley and Jade had seemed to back away. But he loved his family so much and would do anything for them, no matter what it took.   
  
Shelley watched the windscreen wipers swaying back and forth. She spoke slowly, as if trying to convince herself. "If Kane's with her, I don't believe he'll hurt her. He did a terrible thing, he knows that, he'll never hurt anyone like that again."   
  
"But it destroyed Dani." Rhys replied. "And she could have..." He didn't want to think about the consequences.  
  
In the back of the car, Kirsty was sobbing. Jade, who was crying herself, squeezed her twin's arm. She couldn't pretend to understand Kirsty's love for Kane Phillips but, if only they all got through this okay, maybe she could try.  
  
*****  
  
Dani freezes. As she had done on the day that changed their lives.   
  
"Okay, I'm here. Nothing happened. That's one fear you nailed." He's garbling. So much depends on this moment. "The thunder's gotta stop some time and it won't have hurt you. That's two. Your call."   
  
Everything about him reminds her of the terror. The smell of his aftershave. The blueness of his eyes. Even the millisecond drawing of breath before he speaks. But on this bridge they've broken throught some invisible barrier, become almost equal in the despair. "Kane, did you...did you come down here to kill yourself?"  
  
"Dunno really. No, not here. It was gonna be somewhere a long way away so Kirsty never had to go through all that stuff."  
  
Dani digs her nails harder into her palms, drawing blood, trying to ignore the thunder crashing through her head. "I thought the Phillips were meant to be tough! And you're running away!"  
  
He shrugs. "Haven't got much choice, Dani. What I did, Auntie Rose telling me I was born from rape...Kirsty deserves more than that." His face is wet from both the rain and his own tears. "I know no-one believes it, but what Kirsty and me have, it's real. We fell in love. Wasn't done to hurt you or get back at anyone, it just happened. Since I got back we wanted so much to be together and 'cos Kirsty loves you we were trying so hard not to be till you could be...well, we knew you couldn't ever exactly be cool with it, but...You can't give up on yourself, Dani, not when you got a family like that."   
  
They can hear her family shouting to her through the storm now, growing closer. There is a lump in Dani's throat.   
  
And a quiver in Kane's voice. "How'd you get to be so scared of thunder anyway?"   
  
"When I was a kid, seeing a tree get struck by lightning, the thunder was so loud." Tears spill quietly down Dani's face. "I thought I grew out of it, but after the shipwreck..." She takes a deep breath. "Kane, the shipwreck, everything you did, you can't give up on yourself either."  
  
*****  
  
"I hate sitting here when I should be with Jade," Nick told Seb. "I wish they'd let us help look for Dani."  
  
They were in the diner, watching the storm through the windows.  
  
Seb sighed agreement and Jenny Gray, a girl from his grade who was sheltering from the storm with some friends, locked her fingers in his. "It'll be okay, Seb."  
  
He nodded. Having Jenny by his side was the only thing keeping him sane. No-one actually said it out loud or even realised it but it wasn't just Dani everyone was worried about. Alf was out on the search, so was Alex, and Leah was at home with VJ, so Colleen was in charge and nobody ever remembered her being so nice before. Irene had come in earlier to give her a hand and she kept dabbing her eyes. It didn't exactly make anyone feel good, knowing Summer Bay was responsible for two deaths already and maybe two more.  
  
****  
  
"Hello, Rose." Clara sat down by the bed.  
  
Rose Phillips smiled. The doctors told her she was lucky to be alive but she was still very weak and it was an effort to talk. "Thank you for the flowers. They're beautiful."  
  
"I'll get a vase from the nurse," Clara said. She'd been asked if she would break the news about Scott, and she had something else to talk to Rose about. It was time Rose dealt with her rape and got the help she needed.  
  
*****  
  
"Dani, thank God!" Rhys hugs her, throwing his jacket round her shoulders, ruffling her hair like he used to when she was little. Then the anger resurfaces. "Did he touch you?"  
  
"No." The answer is barely audible, Dani is crying so much.  
  
Kane watches as the Sutherlands gather round Dani in a tight little unbreakable family knot.   
  
"We need to get you to the car and warm and dry, sweetheart."  
  
"Don't ever scare me like that again!"   
  
The storm is fading as he begins to edge slowly away. Till footsteps echo behind him.  
  
"Kane." Kirsty is by his side. Bewildered.  
  
His voice is thick with tears. "Babe, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to put you through all this."  
  
"Kane, don't leave me! Your Auntie Rose told me everything, it doesn't matter."  
  
"Auntie Rose told you? When?"  
  
"Today, at the hospital."  
  
He reels in shock. "Scott told me she was dead."  
  
The rain is shining on his face and he's shivering. So much hurt in her eyes and so much love. They reach to comfort each other.  
  
"KIRSTY!" Rhys bellows in pure rage, making them all to stop dead. "Get away from him!"  
  
"Dad, I..."  
  
"You know what he is, you know what he's capable of, get away from him!"  
  
She grabs Kane's hand, for the first time in her life afraid of her father as Rhys makes to move towards her.  
  
"Dad, will you stop it? Will you please just stop it?"   
  
Rhys stares at Dani in confusion. "You're saying you're okay with this?" he asks in astonishment.  
  
"No." Dani gulps back a sob. "Kane and me, we had our own mediation out here. And I think...I think if we all talked instead of hating it might be okay one day."  
  
They're only words. Raindrops on a river. Rhys, hurting from the guilt of not being there when Dani needed him most, struggles to understand. Shelley touches a time before rape when she could think clearly - murder, suicide...where did hatred stop? Jade, just wanting everything to be normal. Dani, wondering over and over if she can do this, when the emotions are still so raw. And then Kirsty. Weeping softly when she hugs her tight. And yet they're only words. That can build bridges.  
  
Kirsty turns again to Kane and for a moment his eyes meet Dani's.  
  
"Thanks," he says uncertainly.  
  
She bites her lip and nods and hopes she's strong enough to face tomorrow. Where words could cross the hatred and the healing could begin.  
  
***EPILOGUE***  
  
Rose Phillips gazed out of the window of the nursing home. She was content, the home was near enough for Kane to visit and she spent every other weekend staying with him. Regular counselling was helping her come to terms with the rape and she was finally finding a happiness that had eluded her since Richie. But she dreaded this meeting with Dani Sutherland. Despite what Clara said, the girl must hate her.  
  
Dani's hand shook as she pushed open the door of the dayroom and the sunlight flooded through the windows. She was making progress at the mediation sessions and had even met a new guy, Scott Hunter, who, unlike her ex, gave her the support she needed. But Clara's suggestion that talking with Rose could help them both seemed misguided. The woman would surely blame her for everything that happened.  
  
"Mrs Phillips?"  
  
The stroke had left Kane's mother partially deaf and Dani had to touch her shoulder when she didn't hear. Rose turned. And, sharing the pain of rape, they hugged instinctively.  
  
*****  
  
Kane was back at TAFE completing his course. Clara had helped Rose successfully claim compensation for the road accident that had crippled her and Rose had set up a fund to help him through college. In Summer Bay there was a gradual, uneasy acceptance of Kane and Kirsty together. So today, down at the wharf, waiting for the girl he loves, everything should be perfect. But it isn't.   
  
Kirsty is late. She's been late a couple of times before and evasive about her reasons, though she's been huddled in secret conversation with Seb a lot lately. Is this then how their beautiful love is destined to end, on this perfect day with the sun sparkling on the blue water?  
  
"Mate, we can't wait any longer!" Alf shouts.  
  
Reluctantly Kane stirs himself. To supplement his income, he's been working on the boat trips round the Bay, helped - or hindered, as Alf puts it - by Kirsty. The boat has already pushed away from the land when she finally comes running down the wharf.  
  
"Sorry!" she cries breathlessly. "I had to see Seb. Kane, I have to tell you something."  
  
This is it. The day she breaks his heart. To Alf's consternation, Kirsty suddenly takes a gigantic leap into the boat, landing in Kane's arms, laughing at the whistles and clapping and cheering from the passengers.  
  
"Seb wanted my advice on the ring he's buying Jenny for a surprise for her birthday. And, Kane, I have something for you too. To tell you I love you." She places the signet ring, with its two Ks intertwined, on his finger. "I had it specially made. D'you like it?"   
  
"I love it. I love you too."  
  
"I love you more."  
  
"Stone the flamin' crows, we've a boat here!" Alf sighs impatiently, but nobody, not the passengers nor the people on the wharf and especially not Kane or Kirsty takes any notice on this perfect day to be in love.  
  
***************  
  
And Finally...  
  
Wheeewww, that is the longest story I've ever written!!! Hope it was okay and the flashbacks didn't make it all too confusing. I know it was a bit out of date keeping Shelley as a character but as I'm in the UK I haven't seen Beth yet - pity, she sounds cool. Anyway, if anyone liked this story I might do another some time but, trust me, if I do it'll be much shorter!!! In the meantime, I get to sit back and read everyone else's fanfics... :o)))))  
  
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